‘Carrie’

“Carrie” is going viral. In the new take on the supernatural coming-of-age story out today, beleaguered high school student Carrie White’s torment doesn’t merely occur within the gym showers or on stage at the prom. It’s also online, one of a few modern updates dropped into filmmaker Kimberly Peirce’s reimagining of the landmark 1974 Stephen King novel.

There are references to the “Today” show and “Dancing with the Stars,” tunes from Passion Pit and Krewella playing at the prom and Carrie (Chloe Grace Moretz) searching about her burgeoning telekinetic powers online. Outside the movie, “Carrie” is also being marketed with a hidden camera stunt that’s racked up nearly 40 million views on YouTube.

However, the most profound use of technology in this contemporary “Carrie” occurs while she’s antagonized.

“It’s how you raise your story to the level of myth,” said Peirce, “Too much specificity is a bore. I thought the characters needed to have cellphones, but they should probably only use them a few times. Otherwise, we’re beating the audience over the head with it. That’s why it was carefully chosen.”

The shy outcast isn’t only ridiculed by fellow students when she experiences her first menstruation — and doesn’t know what’s happening — after gym class. The moment is also captured on a smartphone and later uploaded to the Internet by mean girl Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday). It’s played again on screens during their prom after bullies dump pig’s blood on the teen.

This isn’t just Carrie 4.0 though. Moretz — who at 16, is the same age as the titular character — believes the broadcast of the digital video amplifies the internal rage of this version of the introverted young woman, who’s been sheltered throughout her life by her religiously fanatical mother, Margaret (Julianne Moore). It’s a new reading of the tale that’s spawned three movies and a Broadway musical.

“When that blood is dropped on her, I do think she would’ve walked away if that video had not been put up on the screen,” said Moretz. “I do think she would have walked out of that gym, gone home, cried and been fine — figured her life out and moved back into her shell. Without the video, I don’t think the telekinesis would’ve taken over her body.”

When it came to filming that iconic scene, which has been endlessly imitated and parodied in the decades since director Brian De Palma’s “Carrie” debuted in 1976, Moretz said the challenge was unleashing a totally new interpretation of the classic cinematic moment.

“I just needed to live in my character and not think about Sissy Spacek’s performance or how this is an iconic scene or anything like that,” she said.